"Ball, Margaret - Shadow Gate, The" - читать интересную книгу автора (Ball Margaret)

through the bank give off bad vibrations. She's got unpaid bills all over town, threatening letters from all the utilities and an appointment in two days with an IRS agent who thinks he wants to take over the business in lieu of unpaid taxes."
"I know about the bills. We were hoping you could persuade some of the creditors to wait for their money. Now that you're going to make the Center so much more efficientЧ"
"I am not," said Judith, "a magician. You'd better get some of your crystal healers and spiritual fantasists working on Aunt Penny's case."
Lisa smiled faintly. "I expect they are already doing all they can. Unfortunately, none of it works."
Judith gave her a sharp glance. "NoЧof course not Чbut I didn't expect to hear you say that."
"Belief," Lisa said, "is not part of the job description. I answer the telephone, keep track of appointments, make copies of lost keys, keep the supply cabinet stockedЧwhen I canЧwith sea salt and other necessities, and try to keep Johnny Z. and Miss Penny from taking small change out of the cash box without a receipt. I do not do windows, crystal healings, or bookkeeping."
"Just as well," Judith murmured. "That last task would break your heart. Here I am trying to set Aunt Penny up with a computer system to run her business, and I still haven't figured out whether all these people are tenants or business partners."
"Don't worry," Lisa said, "I don't think they know either. It all works somehow, thoughЧ"
"They are tenants," announced a deep and unpleasantly familiar voice from the door to the back hall. "I choose my own business partners."
Lisa's chair spun around, carrying her with it in a whirl of mouse-blonde hair and denim skirt. Judith looked up, startled, to see Clifford Simmons standing
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in the doorway. For such a big man, he certainly had come in quietly; there hadn't been so much as the creak of an ancient floorboard to betray his presence. And he was looking over the entry room and its contentsЧthe two women includedЧwith a proprietorial stare that she disliked intensely. She slowly straightened and folded her arms over her chest. "And since when do you say how Aunt Penny runs her business, mister?"
"Judith, dear." Miss Penelope Templeton was a dithering gray presence in the hall behind Mr. Sim-mons's solid bulk. As he moved into the room with a heavy tread, she fluttered in behind him. "It's notЧ that is, you know the difficultiesЧwell, the city reassessed all the buildings on this block, and the new property taxesЧand there never seems to be any money" she wailed, "and all the billsЧ"
Judith bent and hugged her great-aunt. "I know you've had some problems, Aunt Penny. That's why I'm hereЧto help straighten things out. And if you need a loan, I'm sure DadЧ"
Miss Penelope drew herself up to her full five feet two inches. "I have never been a burden on my family, Judith, and I do not intend to begin now. Nor do I need money. Mr. Simmons has kindly agreed to buy the business from me."
"What?"
"And all the stock," Clifford Simmons added, "furnishings, bookstore stock, crystals, incense, erЧwhatever. You needn't look so worried, girls. I'm going to let Miss Penny keep right on running things just as she always has; it's just that we both agreed she needs a more experienced hand on the wheel. A man's judgment, you know. I've had some business experience. We'll get this place turned around in no time. There may be a few minor changes in operationsЧwe do need more emphasis on management
24 Margaret Ball
and planningЧbut nothing at all for you girls to worry about."
"I'm not worried," said Judith distantly. "I don't work for you. I was here as a favor to Aunt Penny." She looked at Lisa. "You might want to remember what I said earlier, Lisa." She didn't want to be so crass as to hire Lisa right out from under her new boss's nose; but the girl looked sick and white. No wonder. Having to work for Clifford J. Worthington Simmons III would make anybody sick. Lisa needed to be reminded that there were other jobs in the world, that she was a competent secretary, not a medieval serf.
"Well, well, girls, well straighten out all these little details as we go along." Clifford Simmons beamed at them and rubbed his palms together. "I'm sure you're both team players; that's all that really matters. Now, Judy, I'm sure you have some work to do on your computer; why don't you run along andЧerЧ bug the program, or whatever, while I confer with Lizzie here about the mundane details of the changeover. " He laid one hand on Lisa's shoulder. "You can begin by making an inventory of the bookstore stock while I look over your records. Where's that notebook I saw you going through earlier? And the rest of your files?"
A stray butterfly wandered in through the open window and fluttered right under Clifford Simmons's nose. He sneezed and flapped it away with his free hand, but the movement only seemed to attract more of the curious insects. They streamed through the window and made a dancing cloud about his head for a few seconds. While he was sneezing and shooing diem away, Lisa pushed her chair away from him and put one hand protectively over the top desk drawer,
"Miss Penny's files are confidential until she tells
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25
me otherwise," Lisa said, "and you'll have to discuss the inventory with your . . . tenants. They paid then-own money for their stock and they are under the impression that the materials belong to them. You may have bought less than you think, Mr. Simmons."
"I'll start with the files you do keep, then." Clifford Simmons bent over her and tugged at the brass ring-handle of the top drawer. Nothing happened.
"Oh, dear," Lisa said, her voice dripping with sympathy, "it seems to be stuck again." Simmons used both hands to yank at the drawer and Lisa took the opportunity to stand up and put the desk between them. "These old pieces of furniture can be so annoying, can't they?"
"It's not stuck! It's locked!"
"Impossible," said Lisa with authority. "There's no key."
"You'll produce the key," Simmons said between his teeth. "Tomorrow. When I come back with my lawyer."
He stood abruptly and strode out of the house, slamming the heavy front door behind him. The three women stood in the entryway and stared at each other.
"Oh, dear," said Miss Penelope waveringly. "He seemed such a nice man when he was offering to buy the house and business. I never thought he would lose his temper like that. Have I made a terrible mistake, Judith?"
"Is the deal final?"
"I don't know. I signed some papersЧbut then he said something about having his lawyer look them overЧand he was quite annoyed that Lisa doesn't have a notary's seal, in feet he said some very unpleasant things then tooЧ"
Judith leaned over the mahogany desk and picked up the telephone.
"Who are you calling?"
26 Margaret Ball
"Nick, of course." Judith balanced the receiver in one hand and punched out a long sequence of numbers with the other. "Isn't it fortunate that my worthless little brother grew up to be a lawyer? You need more than computer expertise here, Aunt Penny. And speaking of expertise, where's Lisa?" Judith frowned into the phone. It wasn't a very big mystery, but she did wonder how a desk drawer that had been opening and closing perfectly smoothly all morning had become so thoroughly stuck just when Lisa didn't want to open it. AndЧsurely that window had been closed when they came into the room? She hadn't really paid any attention. . . .
While she listened to the ringing at the other end of the wire, Judith absentrnindedly jiggled the drawer with her free hand. No, not stuck. Locked. Clifford Simmons had been absolutely right.
And she'd been standing right there talking to Lisa, and never saw a sign of a key in her hand. "Must be going blind in my old age," Judith muttered. "Ill be wearing bifocals before I'm thirty." Which wasn't so far away, and that was another depressing thoughtЧbut then Nick answered the telephone, and she had to explain to him exactly why he should close a fledgling law office in Brownsville and drive to Austin immediately.
Lisa had quietly slipped out of the room while Judith was placing her call. Her head was throbbing and she was sick with worry. If Clifford Simmons owned the business, wouldn't he want to see her resume at some point? He'd want to straighten out the records, to pay her a regular salary by check, to list her Social Security number. And he'd probably think it was most unbusinesslike for her to live in two rooms at the top of the house.
Her safe haven was vanishing, and she needed to retreat to the only other peace she knew: the world of the picture.
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27
"111 explain later," she managed to say to Mahluli when he asked what all the shouting had been about. Mahluli had to be warnedЧall the tenants had to know about the change that was descending upon themЧbut first Lisa had to strengthen herself with another glance at the picture world.
It had changed since that morning, or else her own changed mood was causing her to read new meanings into the complex lines and swirls that indicated trees and stones and clouds. The shadows in the forest were more pronounced than the golden dapples of sunlight. The stream seemed stagnant, with greenish scum gathering along the banks. And the clouds that surrounded the arch were darker, with hints of blue-black thunderheads building in their midst. Lisa couldn't look at the forest; the border of clouds entrapped her and she stared at the vague swirling lines until her unblinking eyes burned. There were things out of a nightmare in those clouds, tearful shapes that she did not want to see clearly; she knew that as well as she knew anything.
There was no peace to be found in the picture today, and still it was an effort to tear her eyes from it. "MahluliЧ" Lisa choked out.
He was at her side in an instant.